Australia Receives First Alafura Class Patrol Vessel
1 February, 2025 NUSHIP Arafura during sea trials in August 2024 at the Osborne Naval Shipyard. Photo by Luerssen Australia. The Australian Department of Defense has taken charge of NUSHIP Arafura, the first Arafura-class maritime patrol vessel.
This was reported by the Australian Department of Defense. NUSHIP Arafura is the first ship of this class built under the SEA 1180 project by the Australian company Luerssen at the Osborne Naval Shipyard in South Australia. It is reported that under the project, the Royal Navy would receive 6 Arafura-class maritime patrol vessels.
The first two of which will be built at the Osborne shipyard. The remaining four ships are being built in Henderson in Western Australia. The new patrol vessels will be tasked with maintaining civilian maritime security and strengthening regional cooperation in the Southwest Pacific and Southeast Asia.
An Arafura-class patrol ship. Image: Luerssen Australia
The NUSHIP Arafura will now sail to her home port of Stirling in Western Australia before being commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy later this year. The new coastal patrol vessels are being built in accordance with a contract signed in January 2018.
Its cost was £2.5 billion. At the time, it was planned that 12 patrol ships of this class would be built. The first Arafura ship was laid down on May 10, 2019, and its hull was formed in May 2020.
The third ship of the series was launched in March 2020. According to the plan, the first patrol ship of the new class was to begin service in 2022.
Joining two parts of the hull of the Arafura patrol ship.
Photo credits: Commonwealth of Australia 2020
However, already during construction, it became clear that the design of the new ships had not met fire safety standards, which was why the delivery date had repeatedly been postponed. The Arafura class ships are based on the OPV80 ship developed by the German company Lurrsen. The displacement of the new class of coastal patrol vessels is 1,640 tons, and the range is 7,400 km at a speed of 20 knots.
In addition to a crew of 40, the new patrol vessels can also carry up to 60 military personnel. The new ships have the ability to carry interchangeable modules to adapt to different types of missions. For example, a mine countermeasures module, or a drone control station for better coverage of the surface situation.
This modular principle was to provide the Australian Navy with the ability to partially or completely replace Armidale-class patrol boats, Huon-class mine countermeasures ships, and Leeuwin and Paluma-class hydrographic vessels with one type of ship.